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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA view of the Kigali, Rwanda, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo\/Yuhi Irakiza)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s starting to change.<\/p>\n
Rwanda last year hosted the road cycling world championships. In less than two weeks, Senegal will host the Youth Olympic Games \u2014 the first ever Olympic event in Africa. And in 2030 Morocco will co-host the men\u2019s World Cup with Spain and Portugal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some really interesting things beginning to happen in African sport now,\u201d said Simon Chadwick, a business management director at the African School of Economics. \u201cInvestors are showing an interest; governments are showing an interest. And what\u2019s significant as well, I think, is that we\u2019re actually beginning to get competition between African nations to be leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tapping into the African market<\/p>\n
Rwanda saw off competition from South Africa to land the F1 prize. Morocco and Nigeria were also reportedly interested.<\/p>\n
The Grand Prix announcement made clear that F1 views Africa, with its population of more than 1.5 billion people, as an untapped market. F1 President Stefano Domenicali said there were more than 100 million F1 fans on the continent, \u201cpeople who have waited a long time to see our sport return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kagame said it was high time to integrate African markets with global sports franchises and competitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades African athletes have been a pillar of the global sports economy, adding significant commercial value to top leagues, with the continent receiving almost nothing in return,\u201d he said. \u201cPartnerships like the one we are building help break the cycle because they serve as a catalyst for sports infrastructure development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abi Ijasanmi, the CEO of African Sports Investor, called the F1 announcement \u201creally significant\u201d for Africa because it connects the continent to global sports and \u201ccombines things like sport and technology and tourism and investment. And the continent really needs the boost in all of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
African countries considering bids to host major sporting events have been faced with one overriding criticism: That spending millions or even billions of dollars on a sports event is unwise considering the continent of mainly middle- and low-income nations has pressing concerns like a lack of housing, frail healthcare systems and widespread poverty.<\/p>\n
Rwanda\u2019s policy of committing money to sports to burnish its reputation comes right from the top, but it\u2019s largely an outlier, and the majority of African nations may never have the money to host a big-time sports event. Even the government in South Africa, the biggest economy in Africa, has not made the financial guarantees to host an F1 race again, and has been mulling over the cost of a possible Olympics bid for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n
Learning from each other<\/p>\n
U.S. professional sports have also started taking a greater interest in Africa. The NFL has opened an American football developmental camp in Ghana and the NBA in 2021 launched the Basketball Africa League together with FIBA, the international basketball federation. Rwanda\u2019s capital, Kigali, has hosted five of the six finals so far.<\/p>\n
The basketball league \u201cmade other countries sit up and appreciate what\u2019s possible,\u201d Ijasanmi said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, other countries have been inspired by Morocco\u2019s developments in soccer, by far the most popular sport in Africa, said Ijasanmi, who previously worked as chief operational officer of the Confederation of African Football.<\/p>\n
Morocco hopes to host the 2030 World Cup final in a 115,000-capacity stadium under construction near Casablanca and has been lauded for its player development through its Mohamed VI Academy, an advanced training complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really interesting and very positive to hear other presidents and federations sit talking about how they were going to be the next ones to do that,\u201d Ijasanmi said. \u201cSo, it can be short-lived, but I think the more that it happens, the more it makes others look and say, \u2018OK, well, this is really possible and look what it\u2019s doing for the economy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
F1 announcement brings renewed human rights concerns<\/p>\n
The F1 news wasn\u2019t universally welcomed.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists said it distracted from the rights abuses of Rwandan authorities.<\/p>\n
Kagame has been accused of repressive methods to keep his grip on power, with opponents dying in prisons, independent media muzzled, and other abuses.<\/p>\n
\n Amnesty International called the deal \u201ca sportswashing prize\u201d allowing Rwanda \u201cto polish its image and deflect from its appalling human rights record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neighboring Congo joined the criticism. Rwanda is accused by Congo, the United States and U.N. experts of backing the M23 rebels fighting in Congo.<\/p>\n
Kagame denies the accusations of human rights abuses.<\/p>\n
He has faced sportswashing criticism before because of Rwanda\u2019s sponsorships of popular soccer teams like Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, as well as the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure remains a challenge for sports in Africa<\/p>\n
Corruption and delivery of infrastructure are potential stumbling blocks for African sports projects.<\/p>\n
Rwanda has not yet built the F1 circuit in Bugesera, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Kigali, and will be keen to avoid the infrastructure setbacks that have plagued many other sports events, including the Africa Cup of Nations, the continental soccer championship.<\/p>\n
Every men\u2019s Africa Cup since 2013 has been moved because of construction delays, security problems or public health issues in the original host countries. There are concerns the next edition in 2027 could be moved from co-hosts Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda due to infrastructure projects reportedly lagging behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe instability in the global markets is kind of forcing some of those countries, they\u2019re not able to advance or proceed as fast as they want,\u201d said Maher Mezahi, a journalist and contributing editor at Africa Is a Country.<\/p>\n
Morocco hosted the last men\u2019s Africa Cup and the last three editions of the women\u2019s tournament. It has invested heavily in sports infrastructure and often hosts \u201chome\u201d games for other African nations whose stadiums don\u2019t meet the same standards.<\/p>\n
Egypt also hosts international matches for other African countries. It recently built a stadium with more than 90,000 seats as part of a sports complex known as Egypt International Olympic City east of Cairo.<\/p>\n
However, pointing to Morocco, Mezahi said grassroots initiatives, rather than showcase stadiums, can be a more significant factor in developing sports in Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why they\u2019ve had success producing talent instead of just hosting events is because they built thousands of what they call \u2018proximity pitches\u2019 \u2026 artificial turf, small pitch, five-a-side, and it\u2019s really open to the public. It\u2019s really just take your ball and go and play,\u201d Mezahi told The AP from Algiers.<\/p>\n
An acid test for sports in Africa<\/p>\n
It is too early to tell whether Rwanda\u2019s F1 race will be a game changer for sports in Africa, but it was met with optimism far beyond Kigali.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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South Africa Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie pointed to Rwanda as an inspiration and said there\u2019s room for more than one grand prix on the continent, noting that a single European country like Italy has two.<\/p>\n
All eyes are now on Rwanda to see how it follows up with the racetrack construction and other infrastructure needed to make the African Grand Prix a lasting success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways the F1 grand prix is almost like an acid test,\u201d Chadwick said. \u201cDoes Rwanda have what it takes? Or is it going to fall foul of what has beset African sport before?<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See full AP coverage of African sports here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though human rights groups call it sportswashing, analysts say Formula 1\u2019s choice of Rwanda to host its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-940254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}